Guitar life and fret wear/life

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ironlung40
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Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by ironlung40 » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:05 am

Hello all,

Here's the scoop, I'm an SG lover. I own 2. I have the 61 reissue and a special faded in worn brown. I'm loving these guitars! I have only owned them for about 1 year.

I've had a little concern though as of late, concerning the frets, particularly fret wear. How concerned should I be about this, and what kind of fret wear should I expect with these 2 guitars? I know it will depend on a lot of factors, like how much I play, string type, etc.

But, can anyone of you more veteran players share your experiences with fretwear, especially, if you're a gigging musician who really puts your guitar through heck with many shows/hours of play?

My ultimate concerns are:

1. I'm not rich, so fret replacement kinda scares me especially on the lower end faded model, as it seems a good professional refret may cost as much as half the value of the guitar when new.....would I be better off buying a new guitar come refret time on the faded?

2. with the 61 reissue, I worry about the binding. Can a proper refret be done without harming the binding?

3. I live 3 hours from the Nashville Gibson Headquarters, so if/when I do need a refret, would this be my safest option for ensuring that it gets refretted right and with as little harm as possible to the guitar.

4. Am I worrying too much over this, as a refret may not be such a big deal at all?

5. Is it atypical to expect to play one guitar for my lifetime provided that I have it refretted, or should I expect to have to buy a new one at some point......for instance if I only owned (1) guitar....like the 61 reissue.


I really wonder about this for the really expensive guitars like the higher end PRS's etc. Thoughts, anyone??

thanks for any comments.....
Sincerely,
Ironlung40
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BrianGT
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by BrianGT » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:45 am

Am I worrying too much over this, as a refret may not be such a big deal at all?
Possibly! :)

If you have never had a guitar re-fretted it seems like a big deal but in actual fact it's quite painless!
All frets wear, with stainless steel perhaps being the exception, but before they need replacing they can be dressed level again.....one Les Paul I gigged hard with had the frets dressed 3 times before it needed re-fretting....so this was over about 8-10 years.

I wouldn't consider changing a guitar I loved because it needed a re-fret, the trick is in finding someone to do it who's work you have seen.
Nibs can be saved or replaced or can be dispensed with if it's not a vintage guitar.

Don't worry about it too much...it will spoil your enjoyment of the guitar!
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tony_clifton
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by tony_clifton » Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:30 am

I saw a video once where somebody explained how PRS refretted the bird-inlay models, dang if only I could find it...

I'll be looking for it when I have a lil' more time - off to band practice in 20 minutes.
I play bass.

irish_admiral
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by irish_admiral » Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:45 am

Agree with Brian really! You've just got to play the thing...
Joe

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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Wendigo » Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:08 am

I need to fret-dress my guitars about every 2 years or so because I play so much and play so hard. I havent been bothered to refret a guitar yet, only because I haven't owned a guitar for more than 5 years before I get bored with it.

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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by brianr0131 » Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:29 pm

I had a refret job done a a new guitar once. It was a Brian Moore. They look incredible but are really made like crap. 2 frets literally started peeling off the first 2 days of owning it. The best part was I had it refretted and completely leveled by an excellent guitar repair shop in Philly and Brian Moore reimbursed me the 380 bucks for it. That thing played like a dream after the work was done. It was an I2 and it looked exactly like this:

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My regular guitar then and now is a Parker Fly which has stainless steel frets. I once had a setup from the same shop and he leveled one or two of them and I haven't had the guitar touched in 8 years and it is still perfectly (how perfect can a guitar really be?) intonated and plays like a dream. The only problem with it now is that I don't gig and it's a really uncomfortable "sit down and play" guitar because of the shape of the top horn. I just can't bring myself to get anything else.
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Neiloler
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Neiloler » Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:35 pm

BrianGT wrote:
Am I worrying too much over this, as a refret may not be such a big deal at all?
Possibly! :)

If you have never had a guitar re-fretted it seems like a big deal but in actual fact it's quite painless!
All frets wear, with stainless steel perhaps being the exception, but before they need replacing they can be dressed level again.....one Les Paul I gigged hard with had the frets dressed 3 times before it needed re-fretting....so this was over about 8-10 years.

I wouldn't consider changing a guitar I loved because it needed a re-fret, the trick is in finding someone to do it who's work you have seen.
Nibs can be saved or replaced or can be dispensed with if it's not a vintage guitar.

Don't worry about it too much...it will spoil your enjoyment of the guitar!
Amen. All things wear down, and it does bug me to think about fretwear, but you're not going to escape it (other than not playing the guitar, and that's no fun!)

Just rock it.

Ohara
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Ohara » Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:48 pm

I have bought a brand new Fender and had to have two frets replaced, covered by warranty but still should have never left the factory in that condition. I also have a Takamine acoustic that I had to have the frets dressed up on after about 2 years of playing it three nights a week on stage ( relative cost about $90, well worth the enjoyment I got from it). Do I worry about my frets when I play guitar "hell no" think of it as regular maintenance for doing something you love to do.
Another way of thinking is this, every time you drive your car, your tires wear down, and your oil breaks down and so on and so on, which in turn means you have to fix and repair these items with regular use.
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voodoorider
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by voodoorider » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:26 pm

PRS is looking like it could do with a light dress after 1 year from buying new, i have a scalloped strat which has worn very evenly but worn quite a lot, i think one dress, and the next time will be a re-fret, it's 4 years old but has had a crap load of play! This one worries me as scallops seem to be a little more tricky to do maybe? In fact.. all my guitars ranging from 10 years old down to less than a year could do with at least a fret dress, collectively that's a lot of cash to outlay on fret work.. but i can live with them all as they are for now..

I'd be disappinted not to get 10+ years out of a guitar before a refret the way i play :)

I don't know how many re-frets a guitar can take either to be honest? The wood makes a difference of course, ebony not being so great as it's brittle.. i have a friend who had 2 refrets done on a maple board, and was told after the 2nd one it would have to be a new neck next time.. even then though, it's not the end of the world if it's a bolt on :)

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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by misterMagoo » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:13 pm

I think if it was such a big deal then the vintage guitar market would not be as lucrative...
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Le Chat Noir
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Le Chat Noir » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:18 pm

misterMagoo wrote:I think if it was such a big deal then the vintage guitar market would not be as lucrative...
Was just about to say something similar! If guitars with set necks were useless after a couple of refret jobs, then those 50s and 60s Les Pauls would all be on the scrapheap by now ;)
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Tiny Rocker » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:39 pm

About thirty (!) years ago I got a 2nd hand Gibson The Paul. (Think Les Paul Studio without the, um, frills!) After some months I got a bit of tunnel vision for grooves that the strings (2nd and 3rd?) had made in some of the frets before I got the guitar, especially the 2nd fret (blues in A, anyone? ;-)) so had it re-fretted. It was buzzier afterwards than before, so I got the guy to have another go at it - I guess he did a bit more fret dressing. Anyway, no improvement. I hate buzzy guitars (though some years later I realised that a guitar that has a lot of acoustic buzzing typically sounds fine through an amp) and, when the original frets were taken out, a certain amount of fretboard had come out with them :-(.

So I said goodbye to The Paul and hello to a Tokai Strat.

I wish:
  • I'd not had the re-fret done - the guitar probably didn't need it
  • I'd known that acoustic buzz typically doesn't equate to amped buzz
So, I'd suggest being completely sure that refretting is necessary before you have it done.

Le Chat Noir
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by Le Chat Noir » Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:29 pm

I guess the moral of the story is possibly more along the lines of 'make sure you get your fretwork done by a pro who knows what they're doing' than 'refretting is inherently bad'! Sounds like that guy made a pig's ear of it :(
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ironlung40
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by ironlung40 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:46 am

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I did play my guitars today! :lol:
Sincerely,
Ironlung40
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a.hun
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Re: Guitar life and fret wear/life

Post by a.hun » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:41 pm

Ever thought of taking up fretless bass...? :lol:


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